I am Presence

By: Dominik Schulte-Zurhausen, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms

The business and social environments are changing rapidly. More importantly, the way we, as individuals, can and choose to communicate is evolving constantly. Competition is fierce, technology is moving at an ever more rapid pace and communication can no longer be served through a telephone on a desk, a mobile phone in a pocket, a fax machine in an office or even a full featured PBX in a basement.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to the evolving communication landscape is the fact that the line between people`s business and personal lives is eroding. This is especially true in respect to how people and businesses choose and wish to communicate with each other. Personalized, intuitive, always on, any time, any place service is the order of the day. As business leaders and decision makers we need to be aware of these changes and capitalize on these so that any possible positive benefits have a constructive impact on the bottom line while at the same we are able to minimize any inherent negative impacts that these changes may bring to the surface.

How an organization communicates and empowers its stakeholders to communicate with it is, in today’s environment, a key differentiator and business driver to operational success or failure.

In order to maintain operations and gain a competitive advantage; business decision makers are required to make more precise, effective and faster decisions with regards to their communication platforms while ensuring flexibility in the platform and guaranteeing ROI.

Our world has changed. Technology has changed and is continually changing the way we work, live and play. If you are like me, ‘Generation X’ bordering on ‘Generation Y’, then you may identify with this article. If not then this article may be of even greater importance to you.

While technology has impacted and changed every facet of our personal lives, businesses have to a large extend failed to react accordingly. 9 to 5 is still the modus operandi with regard to the general workforce. Businesses that adhere to this rhetoric do not harvest the full benefits that their payroll has to offer. It’s actually quite simple, you give someone a hammer and that person can drive in nails, give that same person a toolbox and he will create. The type of workforce you employ is by and large not defined or constrained by their willingness or ability, but by the tools you, the business, have made available to them.

This has the effect that employers are not leveraging ICT advances to their full potential and employees are experiencing an ever widening rift between their work place and personal lives.

My working day starts at 8:00 and ends at 16:30. However, if you are in the services industries and in any way working within the connected community then I hope you join me in saying that the static notion of a 9 to 5 idea of a job is archaic at best and should be relegated to the attic right along side with Taylorism.

A typical modern lifestyle requires flexibility. Being physically in the office when presence is required and/or when it makes economic and social sense to you, the employer and/or customers. In my case: I hold down a full time job. I study at night. I have friends and family spread across multiple time zones all over the world. My web presence is a part of my life. I am always connected. It defines me. I am my networks and my associated presence defines me. 24 hours a day. I do not switch off or change my presence between 9 and 5.

How do I do this? While you sit in the traffic so that you can get to the office by 8 I have already scanned my mails, read the latest news, listened to last nights market indicators, reviewed my voicemail, scanned my faxes, updated my presence and made various content contributions through various media channels.

When I drive to work it is after rush hour, saving me an hour and a half of frustration and burning petrol. I am efficiently cruising to work having peace of mind that I am up-to-date on all fronts. Everyone on my network knows exactly where I am, how I am, what I am doing and how to get hold of me. Phone me, skype me, fax me, SMS me, twitter me, comment on my blog, email me, find me on Facebook, leave me a message on MySpace, send me an instant message or interrogate my linked in profile anytime anywhere. I will know that you are trying to contact me and who you are where you are and how you are.

But that is me. I don’t consider myself at the forefront of what is possible. If you really want to know what is possible at the bleeding edge then go to the schools and watch your kids. That is where next generation services will be defined. That is your window into the future. Not a trade show. Not a magazine, but right here with our kids. Watch, learn, apply and enjoy your competitive edge.

Dynamite Comes In Small Packages

Now and then we come across a product which is simply in a league of its own. A product that, over night, sets new boundaries, challenges what was there before and unreservedly changes the way we operate. Today I would like to introduce you to just such a product - the Tellumat Sigma, a compact all-in-one micro/home office data and voice solution perfectly engineered for the SOHO market.


Product Overview
The Sigma is the only all-in-one voice and data solution, available in South Africa, specifically designed for the diverse needs of the SOHO market. If you are a small business or home user that requires a full featured telephony system (PBX) and feature rich, reliable broadband internet access then the Sigma, without a doubt, belongs right on top of your wish list.

The Sigma is akin to an ICT ‘Swiss-army-knife’ for the SOHO market, combining all of your home/office data and voice requirements into a smart, efficient, single appliance platform.

Can you imagine still requiring separate appliances for your scanning, copying, faxing and printing requirements? Surely not, the world has moved on to smarter, more efficient and more integrated devices.

The Sigma does the same and more. It packages your broadband router, wireless DECT phones, telephony system (PBX), private telephone extensions, network switch, 802.11 b/g WiFi and firewall requirements into a seamless and cost effective desktop solution roughly the size of an A4 sized page (or a small box of cornflakes!).

Steven Ambrose, from gadget.co.za had this to say, “The Sigma integrates all your home, and small office communication needs, into one small box. The Sigma is truly the sum of all your communication needs in your small office and at home.” You can read his full report here.

Features

I could list every single feature that relate to enterprise class telephony systems and every feature of bleeding edge broadband access routers and still not give this little big beast the justice it deserves. Instead I will highlight to you a couple of key attributes of the Sigma. At the end of this article I will provide you with the links to download the complete feature list at your leisure.

• Full featured and integrated PBX that supports, 4 wired extensions, 4 wireless (DECT) extensions, Voicemail, Music on hold and many more telephony features. On the access side you can connect 2 PSTN lines and up to 2 VoIP lines giving you a total of 4 trunks on only 2 wires. This offers end user the security and reliability of PSTN for emergency and local calls and the cost advantages of VoIP for long distance calls.
  

• Broadband Access through an on-board ADSL 2+ router, firewall LAN network switch, WiFi (802.11 b/g) router and WAN port allowing you to connect any 3^rd party access device. This appliance, the Sigma, gives you the capability to download at up to 24Mb/s, connect 4 wired PC`s to your network and share one internet access account. You can also extend your network natively through 32 802.11 b/g WiFi devices giving you a total network capacity of 36 high speed LAN network ports.
  

• Price sensitivity is proven time and time again by comparing the standalone devices required to give you the same baseline functionality that the Sigma provides. A full featured ADSL router, a 4 port DECT solution, a small hybrid PBX and all the cables, power adapters and peripherals you would need for a similar integrated system will set you back considerably more then a Sigma integrated solution in terms of CAPEX. In terms of OPEX you will be spending significantly less on energy costs, real estate costs (desk space), setup time costs, and maintenance and configuration change costs.
  

• The Sigma is environmentally friendly. You can now have a clear conscience that when running your business or home solution that you are operating in the most energy efficient way possible.

To Sum Up
The Sigma is a surprisingly cost effective, all-in-one (data and voice) solution for any one/two line home or office environment. It will delight your pocket, does not require you to obtain a PhD to set it up or operate it, and is scalable to the dynamic environment you operate and live in. It places at your disposal, at the fraction of the cost, the features and functionality that usually only medium to large corporate enterprises enjoy.

“Our customers’ offices are slick, energy efficient, always on and rely on only a single appliance. Whether our customers are at their desks, on the couch, in the garden, on the road or surfing the web, they are an effective, professional and contactable presence. Always. It is actually quite simple. Sigma run SOHOs are simply better. Period”- Dominik S-Z, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms.

For more information please do not hesitate to contact me at dschulte@tellumat.com or visit our website. You can download the full Sigma brochure and feature set here.

What is Unified Communication?

By: Dominik Schulte-Zurhausen, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms

To attempt to define the term ‘Unified Communication’ is to open up a hornets nest of endless, yet needless discussion around the semantics. My view is quite a simple one in that unified communication (UC) is just that:
UC is a unified methodology to aggregate the communication requirements of an organization and its stakeholders. As such, UC attempts to presents an integrated communication interface to all stakeholders of the business in today’s rapidly evolving environment.

This is quite a mouthful, so let us break it down a little:
The word ‘unified’, in this context, means to a have a single, integrative and cohesive means to communicate and collaborate with all stakeholders of the business.
The word ‘communication’, in this context means any and all communication media available to the business. These media being voice, video, mail, web, IM and fax etc.

As such, UC attempts to provide a seamless, intuitive, personalized and unified communication interface to all stakeholders. These stakeholders can take the shape and form of internal staff, external staff, customers and suppliers. The view is that different stakeholders utilize different communication media, tools and devices in different situations throughout their day. Thus, UC attempts to integrate the applicable media resources under a presence-aware interface that is intuitive, customizable, personalized, device agnostic and easy to use.

In light of the fact that UC`s low level purpose is to present all communication media channels in an integrated manner to the end user, UC products can then be defined to be those technology artifacts (hardware, software and processes) which support the underlying media and allows for integration into a single user interface that allows for enhanced collaboration and improved business process structures. UC solutions are then not stand alone products, but rather suites of incorporated tools that enable the business and the individual to integrate their communication requirements.

The idea of UC has been around for over a decade, but it is only recently that UC has become a viable and practical business tool. According to Gartner 2008, the two main trends which have lead to this sudden acceptance and interest are:

• The proliferation of IP networking throughout the enterprise and telecommunication carriers.
  
• The capability of software applications to provide all communication requirements via off-the-shelf (OTS) computing hardware and delivery of data via IP packets to the end user device.
  

Of course in South Africa and many other developing nations around the world, the constantly reducing cost of bandwidth has also given a dramatic rise to the demand and interest for UC solutions based on IP networking.

The key technologies in providing UC are:

• Real-time transactions such as voice and video calls via fixed, mobile or soft phones
  
• Live collaboration using voice, video and web conferencing with options for application sharing
  
• Instant messaging (IM) based communication for peers and groups alike
  
• Delayed messaging such as e-mail, voice-mail, sms/mms, fax based communication
  
• Multi-endpoint (endpoint agnostic) support such as desktops, laptops, phones and mobile phones
  
• Value added applications that allow for presence management, directory services, skills based routing, personal assistants, CEBP (through API and/or service interfaces and tools that facilitate the integration of business application with communication)
  
• Wireless technologies supporting voice and data mobility (DECT, IP-DECT, WiFi, WiMax, GSM, UMTS, Pico-Cell etc) with options for transparent handover
  
• Least cost routing over a variety of media channels
  

The theory is that a properly deployed and leveraged UC solution will increase the efficiency as well as the effectiveness of an organization in today’s rapidly evolving business climate.

What is not Unified Communications?

UC is not a one vendor solution approach to a business` communication requirement, or even a once of investment in new communication technology. It is not VoIP in isolation; VoIP is just one of the tools. UC is not a PBX sitting in a back office or a server sitting on a rack.
In fact, UC communication is not even a true stand-alone technology in itself.

UC is just this:
A systematic and ongoing methodology which aims to harness the inherent benefits that a plethora of current and future communication technologies can provide to business` and individual end users alike.

To wrap up

UC is a methodology that loosely hints at an ongoing process of applying associated suites of communication technology tools that when properly integrated with well defined and robust business processes and existing business applications can deliver exceptional organizational efficiency and effectiveness improvements when compared to competing enterprises that do not leverage such technologies .